Monday, September 11, 2006

Widgetbox, a Hummer Winblad portfolio company, is the leader in creating a Web widget marketplace that provides widgets for use with blogs, social networks, auctions and web pages. Om Malik wrote a wonderful article on the web widget phenomenon and the company, which can be read on CNN here.

The company recently announced a widget contest, with the goal of identifying the most creative and useful web widgets. The prizes and ground rules follow:

Grand Prize

The winning widget will be shown in the Widgetbox presentation at the DEMOfall conference the week of September 25. This presentation will be seen by journalists, VCs and many of the movers and shakers of the blogosphere.

The Four Runners Up

Each of the four runners up gets a week as the top Featured Widget on the Widgetbox front door, a Lego Mindstorms NXT kit, and a 100% genuine Widgetbox T-shirt. If you win, we'll ask you for your shipping address.

Deadline

All entries must be received by the end of the day on Wednesday, Sept. 20.

You can continue to make changes to your widgets after you submit them.

The winners will be privately notified via email on Friday, Sept 22. A public announcement will be made at DEMO.

Judging Criteria

Things that will influence the judges:

Innovativeness. What we'd really love to see is a "we didn't know that was possible!" moment.

Web 2.0-ness. Mashiness, thick clientosity, usability, beauty.

Usefulness. For example, a screensaver widget probably won't make the cut.

Widgetboxiness. Whether it shows off Widgetbox features such as Tag Awareness.

Eligibility

Contestants must be 18 years or older.

It is open internationally. Contestants do NOT have to be a US citizen.

It is open to all widgets, even those that have already been registered on Widgetbox.

Contestants may submit multiple widgets.

How To Enter

Send an email to support@widgetbox.com with the name of your widget. If you'd like to point out features of your widget in the email, go ahead.

We'll email you a confirmation that your submission has been received.

Who Are The Judges?

Every member of the Widgetbox staff will weigh in. We're going to have a big Judgment Day party, with pizza and veggie samosas, and stay as long as it takes.